Autumn Fallin'

I say that it's high time for another playlist. What say ye, dear readers? Well since your responses will take to long to get and I'll probably be off doing something else super exciting, I'm going to just give it to you, free of requests. I know. I'm completely fantastic and I read your minds. Remember to send your gifts in the form of Diet Coke and chocolate chip cookies.

Mal's Autumn Fallin' Playlist

I Would Do Anything For You --Foster the People

Girls Like You -- The Naked and Famous
The Rhythm You Started --Sophie Madeleine 

Anywhere with You --The Seventeens

Loves Who Uncover --The Little Ones

Some Kind of Wonderful --Michael Buble 

The Weakest Shade of Blue -- Pernice Brothers

Good Habit --Benton Paul

Birds of a Feather -- The Rosenbergs

This city's A Mess (and that's the correct capitalization, believe it or not) -- Said The Whale

Skyline --The Spring Standards

My Love --the bird and the bee

Autumn Fallin' --Jaymay

So Here We Are --Bloc Party

Goodnight Moon --Said The Whale

In other news? It turns out that soy milk is not detrimental to the health of Casey the Computer. I *might* have been enjoying a little Life Cinnamon cereal the other night and my milk *might* have jumped out of the bowl while I was watching Psych and Casey the Computer *might* have gotten a soy milk bath. But so far? He's a trouper and is working like a charm. I knew he was a fighter. 

I'm now off to see "Lady Macbeth" because I won free tickets in a drawing and who am I to turn down free tickets to a show?

Enjoy!!

A passion for dead leaves...

(Hey y'all, do me a favor and vote in my poll. I promise to send positive energy and lovely thoughts your way for each vote..)

If I could pick a season in which to live perpetually, it would be fall. I love everything about fall. I love the golden colors the sun creates as it filters through red, orange and yellow leaves. I love the tangy smell in the air when I wake up in the morning. (Have you ever noticed that each season has a smell? Well, it does. Let me enlighten you: spring smells clean, like wet dirt and freshly cut flowers. Summer smells warm, like newly cut grass and sun dried pavement. Fall smells tangy, like fallen leaves blown off the trees by the wind. Winter smells crisp, like falling snow on a quiet evening . Aren't you so glad that I called your attention to this? Thank me later.)  I love the little bit of bite the air has to it. I love driving with my windows down and not melting in the kind of heat that can only have been created by Hades. (I know. It's not as bad as Texas or Arizona. That's why I don't live in those places. If I think Utah is too hot, imagine how miserable I'd be some place else.) I love any excuse to wear a chunky sweater and tights. I love boots. I love the feeling and sound of the crunchy brown leaves under my feet as I walk down the tree-lined streets of my little neighborhood. I know plenty of people like fall, but this complete passion and adoration for all things autumnal has been around as far back as my excellent memory takes me. I remember waking up in the morning during kindergarten and being unreasonably excited to walk to school. Not because I particularly cared for the walk, but because it gave me an excuse to traipse through large piles of leaves and take long deep breaths of that lovely tangy air. Yup, I was that kid. And you know what? I'm glad I haven't grown out of it.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

It's no secret that I adore fall. It's also no secret that I adore snow. Yes, you can blame me for praying for it on a regular basis as soon as November 1st hits. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. Don't hate me. Anyway, as I was driving to work this afternoon I was flipping through the radio channels and FM100 has already started playing Christmas music (which I'm morally opposed to. I am my father's daughter through and through on this one. No Christmas until after Thanksgiving) and heard the end of my all-time, most favorite, played-on-repeat-all-season-long Christmas song: I'll Be Home For Christmas. And even though I detest listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving, I let it play. It was snowing and I was all warm and stuggley in my car (feeling perfectly safe driving thanks to my new tires and my wonderful daddy) and I remembered once again how much I love this time of year. I love that I have an excuse to go home a lot to do things like make candy with my mom or for family Christmas parties. I love that EVERY time I go home my whole house smells like cinnamon. I love that finals are almost here and that means the semester is almost over. Basically the ONLY downside to all this is that is ends too fast. So here's the the start of my very favorite time of the year....

Here's to Looking at a Weekend...

...filled with this:

and a little of this....

Hopefully a little of this....

and a whole lot of this...

And if I'm really lucky, maybe even a bit of this....

Don't you just love Fridays?

The light at the end of the tunnel...

Hello friends! I am still alive! I know it's crazy to think, but I did survive midterms. As a present for finishing, I received a lovely cold. I haven't had a voice for a couple of days which meant that I had an excuse to stay in my bed and watch Grey's Anatomy for hours and drink lots and lots of tea. So all in all, it wasn't all that bad. Living at my grandma's house has its perks while being sick. I swear she cleared off an entire shelf of tea at the store, bringing me home every kind that she could possibly find. I also taught Sunday school this weekend, which I loved. And to top it all off, tomorrow kicks off my week of fall break. I work for part of it, but I also get to make sugar cookies, read, sleep and watch my new found favorite crime show, Bones. All in all, life is pretty darn great.

Some things I just have a feeling that you'll all want to know...

I love cloudy days. It makes me so happy to wake up to a sky full of grey clouds because usually that means rain, and let's be honest. I love rain.

Today was one of those good hair days, where even the wind made my hair look better. You gotta love that.

I had an uncontrollable grin on my face when I walked out of my first class and saw the ground outside of OSH covered in fall leaves.

The only reason I love my American Religions class is that I get to spend 1.5 hours staring at the back of this really cute kid's head. Now if I could just find a way to talk to him, then I'd be ecstatic.

It smells like fall today. What could be better then that?

I love fall because I finally got to wear my favorite U of U sweater that I got for working at the stadium.

Today is a tutoring day. This means I get to go to Karlie's classroom for a little while and teach Maria.

Not that any of those things are super important, but they made me happy, so I thought I'd share...

Dear Fall...

I'd like to thank you so much for finally coming to visit me.

I've missed you so very much, it's been such a long time since you've been to visit. I love the way that the cool breeze you've brought blows my hair and allows me to finally pull out all those cute fall clothes that have been in the back of my closet since you last stopped by. I adore the lovely smell of rain that seems to linger in the air whenever you're around. Thank you for the beautiful bouquet of orange, red and yellow leaves that you've left on the trees on campus, it makes an already gorgeous campus even more amazing. In short, I love you. Thank you for finally coming back to see me, you've been greatly missed.

Love,

Mal

Ch ch ch changes....

So sometimes I just crave change. Usually this means I'll rearrange my room or re-alphabetize my books, maybe buy a new movie...lately I've been craving change even more then normal. So I did two slightly drastic things...I dyed my hair brown (not dark brown, not coffee brown, light brown, but still brown) and then I cut it. I love getting my hair cut. It's relaxing and I always feel so much better afterwards. My hair's not that much shorter or too different, but it's enough to make me feel better. And all this got me to thinking. There are somethings in life that we can change, that we can have some sort of effect on, but there are many many other things that we have absolutely no say in. Life is funny like that. Things can change in an instant. Recently one of my good friends lost her father in a tragic accident. Everything in her life is now drastically different then it was 3 weeks ago. As I've watched her cope with it, it's made me wonder how I would react if my life changed so quickly. I can't really tell you what I would do or say if it was me, there are just somethings that we can't plan, some changes that are just so unexpected. Other changes are great...just a few off the top of my head that I'm looking forward to...moving back to Provo in the fall, reorganizing the service desk at work so it makes sense, school and attempting to learn to teach high school kids... All sorts of good things can come from change if we let them. But that's what it all comes down to, using our agency to allow the changes in our lives to shape us in the right ways.